Remains Of Missing Teen Found Near Fort Morgan

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FORT MORGAN, Colo. (CBS4) — The remains of a teenager who has been missing for more than a year have been found. Police in Fort Morgan confirmed that human remains found last week are that of missing teenager Kayla Chadwick.

The 17-year-old has been missing since March 2012.

Police won’t say exactly what led them to a rural area or any details about what they found. Those remains were found about one mile east of Highway 52 and the Fort Morgan Municipal Airport off the 19000 block of Morgan County Road W.

Those remains have been positively identified through DNA as Chadwick.

“We sent those items to the Colorado Bureau of Investigation on Monday and yesterday evening it was confirmed through DNA that those remians did belong to Kayla Chadwick,” said Fort Morgan Police Lt. Jared Crone.

Detectives have said that Chadwick disappeared after an argument with her boyfriend Ivan Torralba.

The two were senior classmates at Fort Morgan High School.

Ivan Torralba (credit: Logan County Sheriff’s Department)

How Chadwick died remains unknown. Her parents were notified of the discovery late Wednesday.

Lucila Torralba (credit: Morgan County Sheriff)

Torralba, 19, was rearrested by police last month on a drug violation. His mother, Lucy, has also been arrested. However police said they are exploring every possibility.

“We’re looking at the overall investigation. Looking at every possible person that we can that’s been or could be involved in the case,” said Crone.

Volunteers who searched for Chadwick in the days after she went missing said this is not the ending they were hoping for. They also said they didn’t get much help from the authorities in searching for the teen.

“It was extremely hard. We couldn’t get any involvement from the authorities hardly at all. Most of them that we talked to were dead set that she was a runaway. And that she was a troubled child and you couldn’t, you couldn’t get help from them,” said volunteer Chastity Hauser.

Torralba was on bond on perjury charges related to the girl’s disappearance. He has not been charged with committing a crime against Chadwick and has not been named a suspect.